Beer came out darker than intended...why?

I just sampled my "RED HOOK" ESB clone after it has conditioned for 2 weeks in the bottle. It tasted a little "green", but was very amber/dark. I have brewed this before (about 7 years ago), and it came out closer to the intended pale ale color. I was wondering what attributed to the dark color? My boil was only about 1.5 gallons, and i steeped the grains a little high, about 170 degrees which I now realize was high. Can these two factors be the culprit? Will the color lighten with age?

Thanks

I'm guessing you used LME? Some of it probably carmalized, causing the color to be a bit darker.

Agreed. LME in 1.5 gallons would probably cause a good bit of caramelization.

I did use LME. I was sure to shut off the heat when adding. Is there any way to prevent the caramelization in the future?
Thanks for the quick reply.

You could try a bigger boil size if that's an option. Otherwise you could try doing a late extract addition -- adding just a bit at the beginning to help with hop utilization and adding the rest near flameout to prevent it from darkening.

same thing happened to me with the Red Hook ESB, it is still very green but I think it will be spot on in about a month.

Thanks. It still tastes great. I might try the bigger boil...maybe 2.5 G?

Full boil would help, however this isn't always possible. When I was doing partial boils one of my strategies to try and keep beer color on target was to do late extract editions. I'd add a lbs. of Light or Extra Light DME at the beginning of the boil for the hop extraction, and at 10 minutes remaining in boil add the rest of your extract. Keep in mind your Extract has already been boiled when it was being made.

Another thing to keep in mind, steeping grains at too high of a temperature releases alot of tannin. I BELIEVE (correct me if I'm wrong sages) that around 170F is when tannin extraction really picks up.

iammatt said:

Full boil would help, however this isn't always possible. When I was doing partial boils one of my strategies to try and keep beer color on target was to do late extract editions. I'd add a lbs. of Light or Extra Light DME at the beginning of the boil for the hop extraction, and at 10 minutes remaining in boil add the rest of your extract.

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can you elaborate on the hop utilization factor of all early vs. most late? What will it do to the hop profile?

drawdy10 said:

can you elaborate on the hop utilization factor of all early vs. most late? What will it do to the hop profile?

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Nothing significant at all.